This is a picture to both salute and to smile. The former first: the man in the middle of the frame, the veteran food scientist T.N. Ramachandra Rao, passed away in Mysore on Friday, after having lived a full life of 96 years and with over 100 research papers and three patents to his name.

What is so special about the picture is that seated to the right of Rao is his nursery classmate, Lokamatha. The two went to school in Tumkur and met at a marriage ceremony in Mysore in December 2008 after a gap of—wait for it—85 years. To Rao’s left is his wife, Kamalamma, who survives him.

all that is fine. But one is usually stumped when asked the same question by relatives’ relatives one last saw when one was of near negligible age… an awkward smile and the indian head-shake are your only defence in such situatons…

I knew Professor T. N. Ramachandra Rao when he was at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 1950s. He was a tennis enthusiast at the time and I have played tennis with him at the Institute courts. I had just joined the Institute as a student at that time. He was a friendly and a thorough gentleman; a classic example of the old Mysore culture.